Chapter 768
Is giving the middle finger all it takes to "take it"? Where did Little White
His previous indifference towards Tang Sanzang and Sun Wukong vanished the moment he heard those three words.
His golden dragon eyes suddenly lit up, as if someone had lit a lamp in his eyes. His dragon mouth opened slightly, his whiskers trembled in the mist, and the arrogance and indifference in his voice melted away, replaced by the joy of finding family.
"Great Sage, was this headband really replaced by the God of Hell?"
Ao Lie's dragon head moved closer, so close that Sun Wukong could see the fine lines on his scales, and so close that his dragon breath made Sun Wukong's tiger-skin skirt flutter.
"Is it even possible that it's fake?"
Sun Wukong raised his head, raised his hand and tapped the golden headband on his forehead, making a loud clanging sound. His tone was full of pride, "Lord Lin Zhu arranged everything for me under the Five Elements Mountain. He switched the real Buddha with a fake one."
That old woman just recited the Tightening-Headband Mantra four times, and I, Old Sun, almost fell asleep on the spot from the comfort! It was the first time I'd ever experienced such a pleasurable massage. If you'd like to try it, I'll ask the God of Hell for one for you later.”
Ao Lie paused for a moment, then slowly parted his dragon mouth, revealing two rows of sharp dragon teeth. It was the first time he had smiled that day, and although the smile on a dragon's face was somewhat frightening, everyone could see that the joy in it flowed from his heart.
He turned the dragon's head to look at Tang Sanzang, his tone surprisingly polite: "Elder Tang has also received kindness from Lord Lin Zhu, so the three of us are truly destined to meet."
Tang Sanzang nodded vigorously, his bald head circling in the air, his face glowing with a radiant smile: "Yes, yes, yes, it's fate, such a wonderful fate! Lord Prison God is the reincarnation of the three of us..."
Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly realized something, abruptly turned to look at Ao Lie, his lips trembling slightly: "Wait...wait a minute. What was your name again? Ao Lie? The son of the West Sea Dragon King?"
"Exactly."
Ao Lie nodded.
"Did you eat my horse?"
Tang Sanzang's face darkened instantly.
A subtle embarrassment flashed across Ao Lie's dragon face. His tail involuntarily stirred in the stream, the splashing water hitting the rocks on the bank and making a soft gurgling sound.
He circled halfway in the air, his dragon horns gleaming in the sunlight, but his voice was much lower than when he had cursed Guanyin: "Well... Elder Tang, it's true that I ate your horse. But let me explain, ordinary horses from the East can't really make it to the Western Paradise. I've lived in Eagle Sorrow Gorge for so many years, eating wild deer and rabbits from the mountains. This is the first time I've eaten a horse, and I didn't even know I ate yours. Otherwise, I'll spit it out and return it to you?"
Tang Sanzang clenched his fist, and a vein slowly bulged on his bald head.
He looked at the white dragon in the sky, then at Sun Wukong beside him with a fox-like smile on his lips, and suddenly felt that he was already exhausted before he had even truly begun his journey. A dragon that had eaten his horse turned around and told him that they were all people saved by the God of Hell. He felt conflicted, unable to either swing his clenched fist or put it down.
However, just as Tang Sanzang was struggling with his inner turmoil, Ao Lie had already stopped looking at him. He turned his head, his dragon eyes fixed on Guanyin Bodhisattva on the lotus platform, the warmth in his eyes replaced by a chilling light.
The dragon's tail traced a silvery-white arc in the stream, and the dragon's posture changed from relaxed to tense again. The dragon's claws gently stepped on the water, creating ripples that spread straight to both banks.
“Guanyin Bodhisattva,” Ao Lie’s voice turned cold, each word like a stone hitting ice, “I, Ao Lie, originally wanted to do as you said, to honestly transform into a horse to carry people, to finish this journey to the west, to repay my karmic debts, and to prove my golden body.”
But today, you dare to use Lord Lin Zhu's name to adorn yourself right in front of me, so don't blame me for turning my back on you.
Guanyin Bodhisattva took a deep breath, suppressing the turbulent emotions churning within her heart. Her fingers clenched so tightly in her sleeves that her knuckles turned white, but she still managed to maintain the composure and serenity expected of a Bodhisattva.
She knew that Ao Lie had completely messed things up today, but she couldn't just give up.
She looked at Ao Lie, a tired and helpless smile slowly curving her lips. Her voice carried a hint of suppressed anger and an unnatural gentleness: "Ao Lie, no matter who helped you in the past, the Buddha's will will not change, nor will the journey to the West."
"Since you've waited here for centuries, why ruin your life at the last moment? I can take your words as impulsive words born of resentment, and I won't hold it against you. It's not too late to return to your place."
"Self-inflicted mishap?"
Ao Lie chuckled, and the breath he exhaled from his dragon mouth exploded into a circle of white mist on the water's surface.
He raised his dragon head high, looking down at Guanyin Bodhisattva, his golden dragon eyes filled with undisguised contempt and arrogance. "What mistakes have I made? My life was given to me by Lord Lin Zhu, and I am also taught by Lord Lin Zhu to repay my karmic debts. What right do you, a charlatan, have to make me return to my rightful place?"
Before he finished speaking, Ao Lie suddenly twisted his dragon body, and the entire dragon body drew a sharp arc in the air.
His dragon tail emerged from the ravine, the resulting waves crashing back into the stream like a silver screen. Water droplets shimmered in the sunlight before splashing back down, creating countless ripples. He turned away from Guanyin, tossing a sentence at Sun Wukong and Tang Sanzang, his voice tinged with the arrogance and defiance of a young dragon: "Great Sage Sun, Elder Tang, please give my regards to Lord Lin Zhu. Tell him that Ao Lie will kowtow and express his gratitude at the gates of the Prison God's Palace sooner or later. I'll repay the debt of my life to you myself!"
After saying this, Ao Lielong turned around, his slender white dragon figure drawing a circle in the air before suddenly flying swiftly towards the western horizon.
His speed was astonishing. His dragon tail flicked out a final silver light in the air, and in the blink of an eye, it had become a tiny point of light on the horizon. In the next blink, even the point of light disappeared into the clouds, leaving only a vast blue sky above Eagle Sorrow Gorge and a few wisps of clouds torn apart by the dragon's energy.
The stream was still flowing gurglingly, and all the gods on the banks were dumbfounded.
The Golden-Headed Jiedi stared blankly in the direction where Ao Lie had disappeared, his mouth agape, muttering, "He... he just left like that?"
The silver-headed Jiedi swallowed hard, wiped the cold sweat that had appeared on his forehead with his sleeve, and muttered, "This part isn't in the script." The other four Jiedi exchanged glances, none of them knowing what to do next.
The twelve people, consisting of the six Ding and six Jia, stood in a row, collectively falling into a state of silence, unsure of what to say. The Jiazi Divine General nudged the Dingmao Divine General beside him with his elbow and asked in a low voice, "The dragon escaped. Did we accomplish our mission successfully or not?"
Dingmao, the divine general, glared at him without replying, but the expression on his face said it all—he had botched it, completely botched it.
Tang Sanzang stood on the shore, mouth agape, staring blankly at the empty clouds on the horizon, his bald head chilled by the wind. His lips moved several times before finally managing to squeeze out a few words: "He...he ate my horse and just flew away like that?"
His voice was exceptionally clear in the quiet valley, carrying a complex emotion that was hard to describe, like aggrieved, like a mixture of laughter and tears, and also a deep sense of powerlessness in the face of the current situation.
Sun Wukong stood beside him, his monkey face equally expressive. He scratched the back of his head, then his ear, clicked his tongue, and looked in the direction where the White Dragon had disappeared. Suddenly, he grinned, a smile that held a hint of admiration, but also a touch of helplessness.
He turned to look at Tang Sanzang, pointed his hairy finger at the sky, and said, "Master, your horse is gone again."
Veins bulged on Tang Sanzang's bald head, even more prominently than when he was rebuked by Guanyin Bodhisattva. He abruptly raised his head and glared at Sun Wukong, his expression as if salt had been rubbed into a wound, his voice cracking: "You dare bring up horses with this humble monk again! Is it interesting to keep talking about horses? You—do you want to fight?!"
Sun Wukong burst into laughter, bending over with mirth, slapping his thigh with one hand and waving the other wildly in the air, tears welling up in his eyes from laughing.
He chuckled and gestured with his chin toward Guanyin Bodhisattva, then lowered his voice to say to Tang Sanzang, "Master, don't worry. Guanyin Bodhisattva is even more anxious than we are about our lost horses. Look at her face, tsk tsk tsk, it's almost as dark as seabed mud."
Tang Sanzang secretly glanced at Guanyin Bodhisattva and, sure enough, saw Guanyin Bodhisattva standing on a lotus platform, her entire face as black as charcoal.
Guanyin Bodhisattva's emotions at this moment could no longer be described as merely unpleasant. On her dignified and compassionate face, the corners of her eyes twitched slightly, the corners of her mouth twitched slightly, and even the fingers holding the vase twitched slightly.
Her mind was buzzing with a thousand flies—how awful was this script? The Golden-Headed Jiedi was almost beaten to death, Tang Sanzang learned to argue, Sun Wukong was completely immune to the headband, and now even the White Dragon Horse that was supposed to be there had flown away, and before it did, it scolded her and then ignored her.
All of this points to the same person—Lin Zhu.
She took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down. The Buddhist light on the lotus platform flickered, like a candle flame about to be extinguished. She raised her eyes, looking in the direction where the white dragon had disappeared, gritted her teeth, and with a swift movement, the lotus platform carried her westward in pursuit. She chased and shouted, her voice echoing through the clouds, changing from initial majesty to anxiety, and then from anxiety to exasperation: "Ao Lie! Come back! You come back right now! I'll explain that matter to you later! Come back and transform into a horse first!"
But she was a Bodhisattva, and although her cultivation was high, the speed of her lotus platform could not match the flying speed of the dragon race. Ao Lie left in anger, pushing all his dragon power to the limit, flying faster than the heavenly wind.
Guanyin Bodhisattva chased after Ao Lie for hundreds of miles, but didn't even see a single trace of his dragon tail. As she chased, she cursed Ao Lie in her heart, then started cursing Lin Zhu, and after cursing Lin Zhu, she started cursing herself—how could such a well-planned arrangement turn out like this, and why was this ordeal so painful?
She chased for a while and finally sensed Ao Lie's aura in a range of mountains. The aura lingered on the summit of a mountain, quiet and steady, showing no signs of continuing its escape.
Guanyin Bodhisattva felt relieved, thinking to herself that this stubborn dragon still knew its limits and didn't really fly away, so there was still room for maneuver.
She took a deep breath, composed herself, and the lotus platform beneath her feet slowly descended from the clouds. But when she pierced through the thin clouds and saw the view from the mountaintop, she was completely stunned.
Ao Lie did not transform back into human form. He remained in the form of a white dragon, his slender body coiled around a huge blue stone on the mountaintop, his tail resting quietly on the edge of the stone, his head lowered, his posture as docile as an obedient big cat.
His scales shimmered softly in the sunlight, and his breathing was steady and long, indicating that he had been resting there for quite some time.
On that blue stone, a person was sitting lazily.
The man, dressed in white, leaned against the stone, his posture casual yet composed, as if he had slept there for countless hours.
His face was mostly obscured by the thin clouds and mist on the mountaintop, but the way his white robes fluttered in the wind and the faint aura emanating from him made Guanyin Bodhisattva recognize him at a glance—Lin Zhu.
Ao Lie was respectfully prostrating himself beside Lin Zhu, his dragon head lowered, his dragon eyes half-closed, his posture quiet and devout, like a loyal servant guarding his sleeping lord.
Her quiet and obedient demeanor was completely different from the arrogant young dragon who had pointed at Guanyin Bodhisattva's nose and accused her of deceiving the world in Eagle's Sorrow Gorge.
A mountain breeze blew by, and Lin Zhu's white robes fluttered gently. He seemed to sense something, and tilted his head slightly, as if he were about to wake up.
Guanyin Bodhisattva stood on the lotus platform, looking at the scene before her, at the white dragon lying quietly at Lin Zhu's feet. Her expression changed from anxiety to stiffness, and then from stiffness to a deep, almost overflowing despair.
That despair wasn't anger, nor was it rage; rather, it was a sense of powerlessness honed from the depths of her soul after countless setbacks. Her lips moved slightly, and she managed to squeeze out a barely audible murmur through her teeth.
"How did it all come back to him again..."
Guanyin Bodhisattva's face was as black as soot. She stared at the little white dragon, her voice almost squeezed out from between her teeth: "Which ear of yours heard him say he wanted the merit water? Giving the middle finger doesn't mean you want water? You wretched creature, who did you learn these tricks and deceitful skills from?"
The little white dragon stood there confidently, flicking his tail. His scales gleamed with a bluish-white luster in the sunlight. His tone was three parts disdain and seven parts certainty: "Bodhisattva, don't pretend to be confused."
"That gesture from the God of Hell means 'Give it to me' in our Dragon Clan. If you don't understand, don't talk nonsense."
Guanyin Bodhisattva felt a tightness in her chest from anger. She took a deep breath, realizing that arguing with the little white dragon was a complete waste of time. Ever since this little dragon had spent a few days with Lin Zhu, he had become much more eloquent and daring, even daring to talk back to her to her face.
She simply turned around, ignoring the smug look on Little White Dragon's face, and directly faced Lin Zhu, suppressing her temper as she asked, "Prison God, tell me, what exactly do you want for Little White Dragon to be released?" (End of Chapter)